


‘till the darkness goes and i see the light

by 3YearsOfPaperShades



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Gen, if that's a thing, this is like a business au?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-16 01:26:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18511117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3YearsOfPaperShades/pseuds/3YearsOfPaperShades
Summary: “Since when do you look like you're doing actual work?”William glanced up quickly before looking back down at his computer screen. “Kapanen. I wasn't aware we had a meeting scheduled .”“Oh fuck off. As if I’d ever schedule a meeting with you.” He rolled his eyes as he threw himself onto one of the chairs in front of William’s desk.“What do you want Kappy? I’m actually trying to get some work done here.” William said without looking up from his screen.“See, that’s what I mean, you're doing actual work. This is incredible. I feel like I should call a camera crew in here to document. ‘The infamous William Nylander has discovered that he actually has a job.’”It was the stupid announcer voice Kappy used that made William finally look up. “Oh fuck you, you know I do actual work. Also, get your shoes off my other chair.”Or:Meet William Nylander, stressed out new CEO of Nylander Corporations.Featuring a cast of supporting characters including:Mitch Marner - advertising genius.Kasperi Kapanen - son of William’s biggest competitor.Auston Matthews - up and coming lawyerAnd Zach Hyman - Private Investigator





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> If you personally know someone in this, then do us all a favor and click away. This is obviously a work of fiction and William Nylander is not actually the CEO of a major corporation.

 

William wasn’t sure just how much longer he could do this. He didn’t feel cut out to run this company and he certainly hadn't expected to have to take over as CEO so soon. 

He reached up and readjusted his tie, trying to subtly pull it away from his throat, hoping that it would lessen the feeling of being unable to breathe. 

“William,” A sharp voice said, sounding annoyed. 

William looked up at the other dozen business men and women seated around the conference table. They were all looking expectantly at him, obviously waiting for some kind of response. He had no idea what they had even asked him, much less what the correct answer would be. 

He was suddenly struck with the feeling that he couldn’t be in this meeting any longer. The room felt like it was rapidly getting smaller and the tie around his neck was definitely getting tighter.

“I—“ He started to say, though the ability to speak was suddenly very difficult. He cleared his throat. “I need a break.” 

He stood up abruptly, pushing his chair back hard enough it came close to tipping over. He glanced at Lewis as he headed around the long table and toward the door, who looked extremely annoyed. 

“Let’s pick this back up in 15 minutes everyone.” William could hear Lewis saying as he pulled open the door and finally stepped into the hallway where he could breathe a little better. He leaned against the wall outside the conference room, unknotting his tie until it was hanging, open around his neck. He just wanted to go home, see his mother and sisters, and maybe sleep for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, Lewis stepped into the hallway joining him. 

“What’s going on William?” He asked, obviously annoyed. “We’re finally making progress for the first time in weeks and you want a break? I know this is new, but you don’t get to just walk out of a meeting this important.” 

William swallowed. “Do we have to do this today? We’ve been in there for two hours already, can’t we come back to this tomorrow or something?” He knew he probably sounded a bit whinny, but he honestly couldn’t bring himself to care. 

“No we can’t just come back to this tomorrow.” Lewis hissed angrily, grabbing William’s arm and dragging him down the hallway, farther away from the door to the conference room. “You know this is a big financial decision, one we were working on with your father before. It’s already been postponed too long and we need to come to a conclusion.” He stepped back and gave William a bit of a once over. “I know you’re used to being able to duck in and out of meetings as you wish, but you hold the title of CEO now, so you have to step up and start paying attention.” 

William swallowed hard and forced himself to take a deep breath. “It’s only been three weeks since he died, Lewis. I think I should be allowed a bit more time to grieve. He was my father after all.” 

“Maybe you should have more time,” Lewis said, sounding less annoyed than he previously had, “But the fact of the matter is, William, that your father named you the successor to his company. We’ve put everything on hold for three weeks and we can’t afford to waste any more time. No matter what time you should or shouldn't have, you’ve got to be at these meetings and they have to happen now if a deal is ever going to go through. So I need you to get back in there and actually pay attention because people will want your opinion and expect you to make a decision.” 

William felt a bit like he might cry, but now was not the time or place. “Okay. I’ll try to do better.” He mumbled. Lewis, at least, looked a bit relieved. 

“Good. Okay. Take another minute, I’ll smooth things over with the rest of them, and then I expect you back in there and ready to go.” 

William simply nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Lewis clapped a hand on his shoulder and nodded at him before heading back toward the conference room. 

William turned in the other direction and headed for the bathroom. 

He stood at the sink looking at himself in the mirror before whispering quietly, “William Nylander. CEO of Nylander Corporations.” He scoffed at the face who looked back at him. Some CEO he was, he couldn’t even sit through an important meeting without needing a break.

William sighed and turned on the cold water, leaning down to splash some onto his face. He took a deep breath and stepped out of the bathroom, tossing his tie into the garbage can as he went. If he was going to have to sit through this meeting he at least was going to be able to breathe while doing so, and it wasn't like he didn’t have dozens of others at home.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Since when do you look like you're doing actual work?” 

William glanced up quickly before looking back down at his computer screen. “Kapanen. I wasn't aware we had a meeting scheduled .” 

“Oh fuck off. As if I’d ever schedule a meeting with you.” He rolled his eyes as he threw himself onto one of the chairs in front of William’s desk. 

“What do you want Kappy? I’m actually trying to get some work done here.” William said without looking up from his screen. 

“See, that’s what I mean, you're doing actual work. This is incredible. I feel like I should call a camera crew in here to document. ‘The infamous William Nylander has discovered that he actually has a job.’” 

It was the stupid announcer voice Kappy used that made William finally look up. “Oh fuck you, you know I do actual work. Also, get your shoes off my other chair.” 

Kappy rolled his eyes but moved to actually sit up in his seat instead of sprawling across both the chairs in front of William’s desk. 

“Come on. Take a break. Let’s go get lunch before they start calling me and telling me to come back to the office.” He said leaning forward, grinning. 

“Don’t have time today. Sorry.” William said shortly, turning to look back at the spreadsheet he was trying to decipher. He knew it had something to do with marketing, but exactly what, he was still trying to figure out. 

“Since when do you not have time to get lunch?” 

William looked up and fixed him with a hard glare. “Since my father died and I became CEO of one of the biggest companies in Toronto.” 

Kappy’s grin fell off his face, “Willy, bro…I didn’t mean to…I…” He paused for a moment and seemed to pull himself together. “Sorry. I should have thought before I said anything. I know this has been hard, how’re you doing with everything?” 

William sighed. “It’s fine. It’s just a lot to handle all at once, you know?” 

Kappy nodded , still looking serious. “Let me know if I can help with anything.” 

That got William to smile a bit, “Uh-huh. I know what you're trying to do.” 

Kappy was grinning too now, “What? Me? I have no idea what you're talking about.” He said in an overly innocent voice.  

“Just because we’re friends, Kappy doesn’t mean I’m gonna give you company secrets. We both know you’d just go straight to your father with that information.” 

“Why the hell would I do that?” Kappy said, smiling mischievously. 

“Hmmm. Let me think,” William said rolling his eyes a little, “Maybe because your father’s company is a direct competitor to mine?” 

“Oh yah, there is that little thing,” Kappy smirked at him. “Now come on mr. competitor, let’s go get lunch.” 

William’s smile fell, “Sorry Kap, but I really can’t. I have to figure out what the fuck they’re trying to tell me about on this stupid spreadsheet.” 

Kappy shrugged and stood up to lean over William’s desk, trying to get a look at his computer screen. “I’m good at spreadsheets. What’s this one about.” 

“Nope.” William said, tilting the screen down so Kappy couldn’t get to it. “We just had this conversation. No business stuff for you.” 

Kappy sighed, “Well at least tell me what it’s about. Maybe I know someone who can help you.”

William raised his eyebrow, looking unimpressed. “Marketing.” He said shortly. 

Kappy grinned even wider. “Then you need to go see Mitch.” 

“Who?” William asked, slightly suspicious. 

“Mitch Marner.” Kappy said, looking at him like he was stupid. “He’s on your marketing team. He’s a genius with advertising, he’ll probably be running that department within the next couple years.” 

“How the fuck do you know more about my employees than I do?” William asked, feeling an odd combination of mildly impressed and annoyed. 

“Call it corporate espionage,” Kappy said as he stood up and reached out to shut William’s laptop. “Now, we’re going to get lunch and then you’re gonna go see Mitch and then all your problems will be solved.” 

“I’m sure they will.” William said sarcastically, but he got up and went to grab his coat from where it was hanging behind the door. 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

William slowly stepped off the elevator onto the 4th floor, holding his laptop. Supposedly this was where he was going to find Marner, the advertising “genius”. For a brief moment, William wished Kappy hadn’t just dropped him off at the door, but he quickly pushed that thought away. He was the CEO, William didn’t need the son of his greatest competitor to chaperone him while he talked to his own employee. 

He took a deep breath, and reached up to loosen his tie. He was William Nylander, he could do this. 

William pushed open the door into the marketing office and approached the secretary’s desk. 

“Hi,” He said awkwardly. 

The woman looked up at him her eyes widening a little, “Mr. Nylander. What can I do for you?” 

William forced himself to take a deep breath. “I was wondering where I could find Mitch Marner.” He suddenly hoped that he hadn’t gotten the guy’s name wrong, or that Kappy wasn’t just pulling his leg. 

“Oh,” The woman, William felt bad he didn’t know her name, seemed surprised. “Mitch is in office 408. Down the hall to your right.” She paused for a moment, “Does he know you’re stopping by?” 

Maybe William should have like called ahead or something? “Um, no?” He said cautiously. 

The woman, William was trying to subtly see if she had a name plaque or something on her desk, continued by saying, “I can check to see if he is in a meeting right now if that would be helpful?” 

Shit, William hadn't even thought of that. Of course Marner might actually be working. “Yes, please. That would be great.” He hurried to say. 

The woman nodded and turned to her computer. William stood awkwardly in front of her desk, clutching his computer to his chest, feeling nothing like a CEO. 

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the woman looked up and gave him a slight smile. “Mr. Marner should be free right now.” 

William nodded and tried to exude thankfulness and leadership…or something like that. “Thanks so much.” He said before pointing down the hall to the right where she had motioned earlier in their conversation. “What office did you say again?” 

“408,” She said with a polite smile. 

“Thanks,” William said again and quickly hurried down the hall toward Mitch Marner’s office. 

Once he had knocked and gotten the call to enter, William realized that the man in question was not at all what he had expected. For one thing, he was young, probably younger than William. From the way Kappy talked about Marner, he was thinking he would be closer to his father’s age, not his own. 

William was sure he stood in the doorway staring confusedly for much longer than was socially acceptable, but Marner didn’t look phased. 

“Mr. Nylander. What brings you here?” He said, and though he seemed to be serious, William almost felt like he was trying not to smile. 

“Um…” William suddenly realized he had no idea how to ask this guy he had never met to help him understand a spreadsheet that he probably should already know how to read on his own.

Marner now looked a bit worried, “Mr. Nylander?” He asked slowly. 

William shook himself out of his thoughts, “Yah. Sorry. Uh, I was wondering if you could help me with a marketing spreadsheet? My friend, Kappy, uh Kasperi Kapanen, he said you were good at this kind of thing? And I don’t know, they just sent it to me and asked me to approve it but I’m shit at marketing and I have no clue if it’s something I should approve or—?” William took a deep breath cutting himself off mid-rant. 

“Woah.” Marner said looking a little surprised as he stood up and walked toward William. “Dude. Do you want to sit down and like take a breath?” 

William nodded, feeling a bit stupid as he sat down heavily on the chair in front of Marner’s desk. He heard Marner shut the door behind him and pull the blinds shut on the office window. 

William turned around to give him a confused look and Marner just shrugged, “I figured you might not want your employees to witness their boss having a breakdown.” 

“I’m not having a breakdown.” William grumbled. At least he wasn’t having any more of a breakdown than he usually was.  

“Sure thing, dude. Whatever you say.” Marner said soothingly as he came around to the other side of the desk. “Now, if you’re not going to like pass out on me,” He paused and looked at William for confirmation that he was actually fine, “Then let’s see what we can do about this spreadsheet.” 

William nodded. The spreadsheet. That was good, he needed to get it figured out before the end of the day and his next meeting was, he glanced down at his watch, in about 20 minutes. Okay Nylander, you can do this. 

He was startled once again by Marner clearing his throat. He looked up. 

“I’m kinda gonna need to see the spreadsheet to help you…” He said cautiously. 

“Oh, yah. Of course.” William said, placing his laptop on his desk, unlocking it, and flipped it around for Marner to see. 

He watched as Marner’s eyes narrowed before he seemed to get mildly annoyed. 

“What is it?” William asked quietly. “Is there something wrong?” He couldn't deal with another problem. 

“No, no. Nothing major.” Marner reassured him. “It’s just that this was made by Pastrnak, his spreadsheets can be a bit hard to understand.” 

Pastrnak, that sounded familiar. “Isn’t he…the head of marketing?” William guessed slowly. He was still trying to learn all the names, which he should have done while his dad was still running the company but he wasn’t nearly as focused back then. 

Thankfully Marner didn’t seem to care that William didn’t know who the head of his own department was. 

“Yep. Though I always end up going along behind him and fixing what he does.” Marner glanced up sharply. “Uh…I mean…How ‘bout you just ignore that I said that? Kinda forgot who I was talking to for a minute there. Sorry.” 

William shook his head, “It’s fine.” It was honestly kinda nice to hear someone be honest, “Though why is he the head of the department is you do all the work?” And this probably wasn’t very boss-like but screw it, William wanted to know. 

Marner just shrugged, “Don’t ask me man, your dad hired him.” And then he winced, glancing up at William again, “Sorry…” 

William just sighed and mumbled an, “It’s fine.” 

“Anyway,” Marner continued with an almost forced cheerfulness, “I can re-write this spreadsheet for you by the end of the day so you can understand it better, but if you need a quick decision, then it’s fine if you approve this. It’s just a summary of predicted monthly spending. It’s pretty much the same as last month except we’ve moved some of the funding form print to television. Not enough to be significantly different though.” 

William blinked. It hadn’t looked that simple, but he was willing to believe Marner on this one. “Okay…” He said slowly, “Sounds good.” 

Marner nodded. “So I’ll just send the new version to you by 5pm today.” 

William nodded, “Sounds good.” He said again, feeling a bit like a parrot. After a second of silence he realized that was probably his cue to leave. “Oh, uh, I can get out of your hair. Sorry. Thanks for the help.” He hurried to stand up and grab his laptop. 

“Mr. Nylander?” William was already halfway to the door, but he stopped and looked back at Marner. “If…” Marner bit his lip for a moment before continuing, “If you ever need help with spreadsheets or marketing or whatever, I’m happy to help if I can. I’m sure it can’t be easy… taking over the way you had to. So. Just wanted to let you know.” He shrugged. 

William swallowed, forcing himself not to think too hard about the circumstances that required him to become CEO. “Thanks. I’ll…I’ll let you know if I need anything.” He said, sure that he wouldn’t. 

Marner just nodded and shot him a smile. “Great. I’ll get that new spread to you soon.” 

William just nodded and thanked him again before sliding out the door. 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

William shut the door to his office and leaned back against it, closing his eyes and trying to enjoy a brief moment of peace. He absolutely hated meetings like the one he had just sat through. Everyone was tense, angry and refused to listen to any point other than their own. After 3 hours of bickering, William was exhausted. 

He pushed himself off the door and over to his desk to check his emails. It was nearing 7pm, if there was nothing urgent, hopefully he’d get to go home soon. As he scrolled through his inbox he saw one from Mitch Marner with the subject line: “NEW, EASY-TO-READ SPREAD, READ IT AND DONT WEEP.” 

“Jesus, this kid is something else.” William thought to himself.  

He clicked on the email and opened the attached document. To his utmost surprise, after looking over the spreadsheet for a couple minutes, he could actually understand it. For a moment he wasn’t even sure this sheet had the same information as the last, it couldn’t with how complicated the other one had been. 

He pulled them up side by side on his screen, and now that he actually understood what he was looking at, they did appear to have the same information. Somehow Kappy had been right and this Marner guy did know what he was talking about. William clicked the reply button and had just started typing out a thankful response to Marner when someone knocked on his door. 

“Come in,” William called, slightly dreading whatever the person at the door might say. The door opened to reveal his secretary, Janice, a lovely older woman who had perviously been his father’s secretary for many years. 

“Sorry to bother you William, but Mr. Gross wanted me to pass on that you will need to come in early in the morning for a meeting with the company’s lawyers. He told me to inform you that it pertains to the company’s state of affairs in the aftermath of your father’s passing.”

William closed his eyes in exhaustion. Why did Lewis always want something? 

“Of course.” He said quietly. Opening his eyes to look at Janice who was smiling a bit sadly at him. 

“The meeting is scheduled for 7:30. Why don’t you head on home soon and get some rest?” She said kindly. A lot of the time William felt she was more of a mother to him than a secretary. 

“I’ve just got a few things to finish up and then I’ll head out. You're more than welcome to leave though,” He added as an afterthought. He didn’t want anyone else having to stay later than they had to. 

Janice just smiled sadly at him again before ducking back out of the room. 


	2. Chapter 2

“Now for the next topic, as I’m sure you can see, the records Michael Nylander left behind are quite scattered,” The lawyer who seemed to be in charge of this meeting, was saying. William couldn’t even remember if he had introduced himself and at this point, an hour into the meeting, it was too late to ask for a name. 

Boss Lawyer, as he was mentally calling him, slid some papers across the table. William added them to the pile he had been collecting all meeting and shuffled through them trying to look like he understood the garbled legal jargon that was covering the pages. 

Another another one of the lawyers, William didn’t know why there had to be three of them at this meeting, continued by saying,“At this point, our main focus is consolidating your father’s documents and helping you to expedite the legal processes involved in the official transfer of company ownership.”

William ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. “Okay, so what do you need from me?” 

“Oh it’s all on the documents there,” Boss Lawyer gestured to the papers in front of William. 

“Of course,” William mumbled, looking back down at the pages of writing. He had a vague idea what was being discussed, but he did not have nearly a good enough grasp on the situation to be able to give an actual response. 

After a moment of silence Boss Lawyer cleared his throat and continued, seeming mildly annoyed, “I’m sure you see where we noted some discrepancies in the records, below that are proposed solutions for handling this. We need to know your preferred course of action.” 

William nodded and continued to shuffle through the pages, trying to find what page they were even talking about. Even he knew enough to know that discrepancies in the records couldn’t be good. 

He chanced a glance toward the door, hoping, for once, that Lewis would come back from his phone call and take over the conversation. 

“You said discrepancies,” He started, trying to stall for time. “What — what are they?” 

Boss Lawyer was outwardly annoyed now, “We’re saying that there are areas of your father’s records that don’t match up as they should.” 

William looked up, “I know what discrepancies are.” He said shortly and then immediately felt his face heat up. It wasn’t very professional of him to snap at his legal council. Though, of course even the lawyers that were working for him didn’t think he knew even the definitions of basic words. They weren’t that far off the mark but William didn’t feel like he needed to be reminded of the fact that he was a sorry excuse for a CEO this early in the morning.

“Uh, Sorry. That was —“ 

He was suddenly cut off by the lawyer who hadn't spoken much so far, saying, “How about we take a 10 minute break. It’s early and I’m sure Mr. Nylander has a lot on his plate right now. He would probably appreciate a couple minutes to read over the documents privately before we re-adjourn.” 

William stared at the third lawyer in surprise. He hadn't paid him much attention so far, assuming that because this guy was so much younger than the other two he was an intern or something. Evidently that was wrong because though Boss Lawyer shot the young guy an annoyed look, he didn’t argue with him. 

“Fine. I’ll go find coffee.” Boss Lawyer grumbled, standing up and leaving the room, quickly followed by his other, older colleague. 

Soon it was just William and the young guy. 

“I’m Auston.” He said, standing up to move into the chair next to William, and holding out his hand. 

“William.” He replied before immediately clenching his teeth in embarrassment. ‘He obviously knows your name, you're his client, dummy.’ William thought at himself as he shook the offered hand.  

Auston, thankfully, didn’t mention that and simply said, “Nice to meet you.” 

William shot him a small smile that he was sure came across as more of a grimace. “You too.” He tried to force himself to relax, “Thanks for calling a break. I’m sure you could tell I was a little overwhelmed.” 

Auston just hummed and reached for the papers in front of William, “Mind if I…?” 

William quickly waved his hand in an ‘go ahead’ gesture. 

The devolved into silence for a minute as Auston looked through the papers. 

“Okay, so, “ He started as he put one of the papers on the table and turned it to face William. “There’s some issues with how your father’s finances were recorded. Nothing too major in regards to the company or we would have had this meeting much sooner, but it is something that needs to be addressed.”

William nodded, giving up pretending to understand the paper and looking straight at Auston. 

“We outlined a couple options you can choose from for a plan of attack. Remember that we are working for you, not for the government or for anyone trying to look into your records. We want to make this as simple as possible.” 

William nodded again. 

“So, option one: we can try our best to basically attempt to bury the files that have the issues. This works for a lot of companies but if someone goes looking too closely they can easily notice the problem files. Two: we can attempt to get rid of the files that have issues. Once again, if someone looks too closely they can easily see that something is missing but in this case you could make the argument that they were lost of damaged or never recorded in the first place. That has it’s own set of issues that we can address if you chose to go that route.” 

William looked at him a bit shocked, this all seemed very extreme for something was supposedly not a big deal. Also it was seeming like there was something illegal in these records and William wasn't sure what to think of that. 

“Third option,” Auston continued, oblivious to the thoughts going through William’s mind, “We attempt to create a logical cover story for the reasoning behind these files and hope that doesn’t set off any alarms. Fourth option — “ 

“Wait,” William cut him off. “What exactly are we trying to hide? What did my dad do?” 

Auston stopped and looked at him a bit surprised, “You don’t know? Did you not receive the information we sent over the other day?” 

William swallowed, “No? Why? What did it say?” 

“We sent it to Lewis Gross just two days ago. He said he would pass it on to you.” 

“Well he didn’t,” William grumbled. 

Auston looked anxious for the first time all meeting. “Okay. Well. Michael Nylander was funneling a small amount of money from the company’s profits to a personal bank account.” 

William furrowed his brow. “What? What does that mean? Whose account? How much money?” 

Auston held up a hand to stop him and shuffled through the papers in front of William until he found the one he was looking for. “The money was going to an account under the name of Alexander Eriksson. Roughly 50 thousand each year for the past 3 years. Not much money in comparison to the amount the company makes, but it’s significant enough that it could cause problems for you if anyone found out.” 

William stared at him. “Why…why was he doing that? Who’s this Eriksson guy? Why have I never heard about this?” 

Auston shrugged, looking regretful, “I’m not sure, sorry. We assumed you already knew about this.” 

“I…” William trailed off. What did all of this mean? 

“If you wanted,” Auston said, looking thoughtful, “We could table this discussion until later in the week? That would give you time to look into this more and get a better idea of what you’d like to do.” 

William just nodded, feeling a bit blindsided. 

“Okay, I’ll go get Brian and Mike so we can finish up here.” He paused on his way out the door, “Sorry again for springing this on you.” 

All William knew, was that after this meeting he needed to have a talk with Lewis. 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

“Can we talk?” William said as he stuck his head through Lewis’s office door. 

“I have 5 minutes, so you gotta make it quick.” Lewis said without looking up from where he was writing something. 

William stepped into the room and shut the door, pulling the blinds shut as he walked over to stand in front of the desk. 

“Did you know?” He said, cutting straight to the chase.

“Know what?” Lewis asked, still not looking up. 

“About Dad breaking the law and funneling money to some account under the name of Alexander Eriksson?” 

Lewis’s head snapped up. “What?” 

William glared at him, “I know you know what I’m talking about. Auston said they sent you an email two days ago that you were supposed to forward to me.” 

Lewis looked slightly constipated. “Look, kiddo,” He started, causing William to furrow his brow, Lewis hadn’t called him kiddo since he was about 10, “I get a lot of emails and this one must have just slipped past my radar. I don’t even know who this Auston is, maybe it got sent to my junk folder, I can check.” 

He turned to his computer but William stopped him by saying, “Auston is one of the lawyers. He told me that you replied to his email and said you would pass the information on to me.” He paused to stare at Lewis, “I know you got it, so what do you know about this?” 

Lewis looked up at him thoughtfully, “Now that you mention it, I do remember that email. I meant to send it to you but it must have slipped my mind.” 

William resisted the urge to roll his eyes. 

“As for what I know about this. Nothing. Your father was a complicated man, you know that.” 

“You were the person in this company who was the closest to him. You have to know something.” William pressed. 

“William, I wasn’t privy to everything your father did. I don’t know what to tell you, I’m sorry.” 

William pursed his lips, “Then what do you think he was doing putting company money in someone else’s account?” 

Lewis shook his head, “I honestly don’t know.” He sighed and continued gently, “There were plenty of secrets I kept for Michael, one’s that I now keep for you, but this wasn’t one of them.” 

William looked at him consideringly, “You would tell me if you knew something though, right?” 

Lewis looked affronted, “Of course I would.” He stood up and walked over to where William was, putting a hand on his shoulder. “William, I have know you and your family since before you were born. I wouldn’t lie to you. I don’t know what this whole thing with your father is about, but I know it’s important to you and to the company. So don’t worry, I’m going to look into this the best I can.” 

Lewis squeezed William’s shoulder, “You do trust me don’t you? We can’t successfully run this company without us trusting each other. Your father told me to look after you and help you get your feet up under you while you transitioned to CEO. I’m just trying to follow his wishes to the best of my ability.” 

William sighed, “Of course,” He had known Lewis since forever and if his father had trusted him, William didn’t see why he shouldn't either. “I know all that, and I do trust you. This is all just so much harder and more complicated than I thought it would be.” 

“I know that, but you're doing such a great job. I’m just sorry your father can’t be here to see what a great leader you're turning in to.” 

He pulled William into a hug before saying apologetically, “I’m really sorry, but I have a meeting in a couple of minutes and I need to prepare. Maybe we can get dinner before you head home tonight?”

William nodded, “Sure, sounds good.” 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“ _Wait he said what_?”

“That my dad was funneling money into a private account.” William hissed into the phone, letting his head fall back onto the top of his office chair. 

“ _I mean could it somehow be a misunderstanding_?”

“I don’t think so, it’s 50 thousand a year for the last 3 years, Kappy, that’s quite a bit of money.” 

There was silence for a moment at the other end of the phone. 

“ _Who did they say he was giving the money to? What name was the account under?_ ”

“You, uh, know this is something you don’t share with your dad right? I know this is business, but way more than that, it’s personal. I trust you, but…” 

“ _Of course I won’t say anything_.” Kappy sounded offended, “ _This is more important than the companies, this is your family, dude I wouldn’t_.” 

“I know, I know. I just had to check.” William paused, “It was to an account under the name Alexander Eriksson.” 

“ _Who —_ “ 

“No idea. I don't even know if he’s in the U.S. or Sweden or what.” 

There was silence for another moment before, “ _Have you thought about hiring a private investigator?_ ” 

“Kappy,” William groaned.

“ _What? I’m serious. I can give you the name of a guy my dad used last year._ ” 

“Did he…get the information you wanted?” 

“ _Yah, and more. I wouldn’t recommend you a PI who wasn’t good at their job._ ” 

William was quiet for a moment, Lewis had said he was going to take care of this but 

William couldn’t help wanting to find out more for himself. “Okay. Who is this guy?” 

“ _His name is Zach Hyman. He’s super smart, great at finding out what you need to know. I’ll email you with his contact info._ ” 

“Thanks.” William paused, looking down at his desk, “You’re a good friend, Kap.” 

“ _Shut up, don’t get all sappy on me,_ ” Kappy replied, but after a second he sighed and added, “ _You know I’ll always help you out, whenever I can. You’re basically my brother, dude_.”

“Oh shut up,” William said with a grin, remembering the countless times they've had conversations just like this. 

“ _No you shut u_ _p_ ,” He could hear Kappy struggling not to laugh, “ _You know I’ll always remember the time when we were about eight and you actually started crying because you wanted a brother so badly, and your sister told you that I couldn’t be your brother because I wasn’t in your family. And that made you start crying even more. Your mom had to like promise to give you ice cream after dinner to make you stop._ ” Kappy was definitely laughing now. 

“Well I wouldn’t want you for a brother anyway,” William said, fighting back a laugh himself, “I’m perfectly happy being the only Nylander son, thank you very much. So you can go fuck right off.” 

“ _Sure, sure,_ ” Kappy said soothingly, but was interrupted by some sort of commotion in the background. 

“ _Alright, I’m coming, just give me a second. Sorry Will, I have a meeting like five minutes ago. I’ll email you Hyman’s info_.” 

“Okay, thank — “ William was cut off by Kappy’s annoyed voice. 

“ _I said I was coming…Okay, Jesus…No, I do know how important it is…Look I’m literally going right now —Bye Will — Yah, sure, tell my dad. I’m sure —“_

The phone went dead. 

“Bye.” William said into the now silent room. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things just got a lot more dramatic. Also I know nothing about being a lawyer so sorry for any issues there. Don’t ask me why I decided to write so much about things I know little to nothing about. It's just a nice distraction from the playoffs and finals. Anyway, hope you enjoyed :)

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly I know nothing about business so dont ask me why I wrote this. But yah, hope you enjoyed, feel free to correct me on how an actual office works cause I sure don't know.


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